


Falling With Style

by flightinflame



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Dirk Gently Needs a Hug, M/M, Peril, Project Blackwing (Dirk Gently), Scars, Wingfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2018-05-26
Packaged: 2019-05-14 00:00:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14758781
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightinflame/pseuds/flightinflame
Summary: It's not that Dirk can fly. He just has wings. Wings that he'd very much like his boyfriend not to know about.





	Falling With Style

**Author's Note:**

> For TriffidsandCuckoos, betaed by the amazing Lourdesdeath
> 
> Warning: This fic contains Todd considering suicide in an attempt to avoid being shot or captured by Blackwing.

Todd glanced behind him, measuring that they weren't far from the cliff edge. One more step backwards, maybe two, and they would plummet down. He tried to peer over, the sheer drop leaving him dizzy. He had to believe that the universe would save them, somehow. That some comically large trampoline would end up beneath them, or even a soft pile of cardboard boxes, he wasn't fussy. Dirk shuffled slightly back, his arms raised, making himself as big as possible, and Todd cringed.

"Dangerous little Svlad Cjelli," the man that they were facing snarled. "Always knew you were trouble, even as a child, but now, well now you're going to get your little boyfriend killed..." Todd could see Dirk was shaking. "I'm going to shoot him. I was gonna let you choose, if you wanted it to be him or Miss Black, because the new boss said he wanted one of them alive, give you an incentive on your tests - get things right and you get'a see ‘em, get things wrong and...well..." his voice trailed off, and he edged a little further forwards, making Dirk back up, Todd feeling his heels now hanging out into nothing. So this was it. This was his choice. A bullet or a fall, and his heart was racing.

"Please," Dirk was begging, and there was a laugh from the man in front.  
"We both know that you've got a way out of here Svlad... is it your boyfriend that's stopping you? You'd rather him die than see what a little freak you are? Or is it you don't think you could manage the weight-"

Todd reached out, resting his hand on Dirk's back, a silent warning but also a comfort. If this was his end, he didn't want Dirk thinking he hated him.  
"Todd?" Dirk whispered. "When I turn, grab on."

Todd barely had time to register what was said before Dirk spun to face him, bending his knees slightly and picking Todd up as he hurtled both of them over the edge. Todd heard a bullet whistle above Dirk's head as he gripped him, leaning up to try and kiss him as they started to fall. It was better this way, he knew that. Because this way, Dirk wasn't going back there. He would have nothing more to fear.

Time stretched into an eternity, as they hurtled downwards, and Todd saw that Dirk's face was stained with tears. 

He wanted to kiss them away, but he couldn't reach, couldn't offer that one final comfort. He closed his eyes, not wanting Dirk's last moments to be witness to his fear.

Slowly, he realised that the wind that whipped his body wasn't just going down. It was going sideways as well.

When they reached the ground, there was no collision. He was lowered down gently, his heart racing, wondering if he was imagining it, a last hallucination from his brain. Then he opened his eyes.

Dirk was standing beside him, head bowed, crying openly. But that wasn't what caught his attention. His gaze was drawn to the large shapes behind him. One wing was almost as long as Dirk was tall, stretching up towards the sky, while the other seemed folded somehow, bent awkwardly and half the length of the other. The feathers were white, but flecked with glimpses of blue and green that shimmered like opal. Dirk's shirt was gone, a few scraps of fabric clinging to the waistband of his pants.

"Dirk-" he breathed, his hand reaching out to brush through the feathers. Dirk shied away.  
"I'm sorry," he whispered.

"Why didn't you tell me you could fly?" Todd asked.  
"I can't," Dirk muttered.  
Todd glanced up at the cliff edge and raised an eyebrow. Dirk had the decency to blush.  
"I can't fly. It's not... it's falling with style," he murmured, smiling a little at his own joke.  
"You have wings, Dirk," Todd pointed out, because they were several months into their relationship and really this was the kind of thing that should come up in the first few dates. 

Dirk swallowed, and shrugged a little.  
"They're normally hidden in a pocket dimension. Emergency use only."  
"Wings," Todd repeated, wondering if Dirk hadn't understood that that wasn't exactly the most common of accessories.

Dirk shrugged.  
"One was malformed when I was born," he muttered.  
"Can I look?" Todd asked, and Dirk nodded stiffly.

Todd walked around him, approaching the whole wing first, running his fingers over the feathers tenderly.  
"Can you feel that?"  
Dirk nodded, still sniffling slightly, not seeming to have words for this. Todd supposed there wasn't much to say. He ran his hands across the back of them, watching the way the colours seemed to dance.  
"They're beautiful," he murmured, captivated like a moth to a flame. The feathers were soft beneath his fingers, and Dirk shivered a little as he brushed the softer down that surrounded the join to his shoulder blade. He moved to the damaged wing, examining it with the same gentleness.

The wing was perfectly normal until the joint halfway up - Todd couldn't help thinking of it as an elbow, although there was almost certainly a fancy scientific word that he didn't know of. Then it ended abruptly, a mass of scar tissue. He ran his fingers over that as well, and shuddered when he recognised the familiar brand of the 'Icarus' symbol embedded in the flesh. Dirk sobbed out loud when his fingers began to thoughtlessly trace it, and Todd hugged him close. The whole wing folded around him, mirroring the embrace.

"Tried to escape once too often," Dirk mumbled, and Todd noticed, his stomach twisting guiltily.  
"You could have told me."  
"I just... didn't want to let you down."

Todd stared at the feathers on both wings, the wings that had saved their lives, and shook his head, then leaned in for a kiss.   
"You didn't let me down." He paused. "We'd better go and find a road. And you need a shirt."

Dirk's answering smile was a little damp, but still real.


End file.
